The US has already shot four “unknown objects” out of the sky: what exactly is going on? | Abroad

Since the beginning of this month, the United States has been under the spell of flying objects over its territory. It all started with a Chinese-made balloon. The US is convinced it was an espionage tool, but China insisted it was “a tool to investigate the weather”. The balloon hovered over the US for two weeks. Pentagon officials pointed out that falling debris from the spy balloon could have hit people on the ground. Not much later a second, third and fourth object was spotted. These were very firmly thrown out of North American airspace.

China is said to have developed the spy balloon program to complement its fleet of reconnaissance satellites, US officials said. The goal is to collect information from all over the world. Since the capabilities of the spy balloons are not yet fully understood, it is not certain whether they collect information other than China’s satellites. Still, officials said, the balloons can at least hover over a location longer than a satellite. And while reconnaissance satellites often focus on imagery, the balloons seem to collect communications mostly.

Northern Command General Glen VanHerck said late last week that there was no indication of an immediate threat. “I’m not going to categorize the three new objects as balloons either. We are not sure yet.” Speculation about what the objects are has increased in recent days. “I will let the secret service and the anti-espionage service sort that out,” said General VanHerck. An American journalist asked VanHerck whether this might be extraterrestrial life. The general replied that at the moment “nothing is being ruled out yet”.

A senior official told ABC News that the three latest targets shot down were likely weather devices, not surveillance balloons. But this was contradicted by congressmen who previously told ABC News that intelligence agencies believed the objects were, in fact, spy balloons.

Democratic Senator Jon Tester told CBS, “What has happened in the last two weeks has been nothing short of madness. And the military must have a plan to determine not only what is going on, but what the dangers are.” Republicans have repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for its handling of the first suspected spy balloon, saying it should have been shot down much sooner.

The United States has sent more than 10 balloons into Chinese airspace since January last year. So says the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The United States should “look in the mirror” and “change its practices,” a Chinese ministry spokesman said Monday. He added that China reserves the right to take appropriate actions in the future. “There is nothing rare about American balloons illegally entering another country’s airspace,” the spokesman said.

A senior Taiwanese official says in the Financial Times on Monday that dozens of Chinese military balloons have flown into Taiwanese airspace in recent years. “They come very often, the last one a few weeks ago,” said the anonymous source. Another source in Taiwan says such flights occurred on average once a month. So far, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry had confirmed only one such incident a year ago. This involved a whole series of balloons.